The festival will be going on until just the end of this week, Sunday April 4th. So catch one of the flicks if you can, and most likely you'll get the chance to interact with and maybe even meet one of the prestigious members of this year's most up and coming directors.
Opening Night
Bill Cunningham New York
In a city of dedicated originals, New York Times photographer Bill Cunningham stands out. This heartfelt and honest documentary turns the camera on Cunningham and his chronicles of the events and people that captivate our beloved city, and the result is just as much a portrait of New York as of Cunningham. Read more…Wed Mar 24: 7:30 (MoMA)
Wed Mar 24: 9:30 (MoMA)
Thu Mar 25: 9:15 (FSLC)Closing Night
I Killed My Mother (J’ai tué ma mère)
In this cri de coeur exposé of the limits of love, the director himself plays the lead character, Hubert—a fiery creature full of lust and venom whose burgeoning (homo)sexuality is intensely at odds with his mutually parasitic maternal relationship. Read more…JUST ADDED! Thu April 1: 6:15 (FSLC)
Sun Apr 4: 7:00 (MoMA)
Amer
A dreamy pastiche tour de force of 1970s Italian giallo horror movies that plays out a delirious, enigmatic death-dance of fear and desire. The film’s three parts, each in a different style, correspond to the childhood, adolescence, and adulthood of its female protagonist—and that’s all you need to know. Read more…Fri Apr 2: 9:15 (FSLC)
Sat Apr 3: 2:00 (MOMA)
Beautiful Darling: The Life and Times of Candy Darling, Andy Warhol Superstar
Born James Slattery in Massapequa, Long Island, in 1944, Candy Darling transformed herself into a stunning blonde actress and became an active player in New York’s “downtown” scene in the Sixties. Read more…Fri Apr 2: 9:15 (MoMA) Sat Apr 3: 6:00 (FSLC)
Bilal’s Stand
For nearly 60 years, Bilal’s family has run a taxi business, known in the neighborhood as “the stand.” But times are getting tougher: there’s more competition, and Bilal is thinking of leaving to go to university. Read more…Fri Mar 26: 9:00 (MoMA)
Sat Mar 27: 5:30 (FSLC)
Dogtooth
The most perverse film of the year—you’ll be scratching your head when you’re not laughing it off. In a scenario that suggests a warped experiment in social conditioning and control, a not-so-average family lives in an idyllic villa sealed off from the outside world and possessing its own rules. Read more…Tue Mar 30: 9:00 (MoMA)
Wed Mar 31: 6:15 (FSLC)
Down Terrace
Mike Leigh meets The Sopranos in this extraordinary family crime drama, laced with jet-black humor. Fresh out of jail, Bill (Robert Hill) is obsessed with finding out who snitched on him. Read more…
Mon Mar 29: 6:15 (MoMA)
Tue Mar 30: 9:00 (FSLC)
Evening Dress (La Robe du soir)
A girl’s crush on her French teacher (played by Belgian-Portuguese singer Lio) veers off into obsession. Myriam Aziza beautifully captures a stifling small-town atmosphere, as well as the complex, contradictory emotional life of this twelve-year-old. Read more…Tue Mar 30: 6:15 (FSLC)
Wed Mar 31: 9:15 (MoMA)
Every Day Is a Holiday (Chaque jour est une fête)
Three women (Hiam Abbass, Manal Khader, Raïa Haïdar) board a bus on the Lebanese Day of Liberation to visit their husbands in jail. When their bus is stopped short by a stray bullet, the women are left to find their own way in the hot sun through mountains full of mines, amid sounds of muffled explosions. Read more…
Sat Mar 27: 5:00 (MoMA)
Mon Mar 29: 9:00 (FSLC)
The Father of My Children
Mia Hansen-Løve’s film first follows the frantic business dealings of Grégoire, juggling the demands of work and family. A moving yet never sentimental drama that honestly depicts the movie business and the process of picking up the pieces after bereavement. Read more…Thu Mar 25: 6:15 (FSLC)
Sat Mar 27: 8:00 (MoMA)
Frontier Blues
With a cinematic style that is a study in elegant simplicity, Frontier Blues is a sweet, slightly absurdist snapshot of desperate men, absent women, and waiting for whatever the future may hold. Filmmaker Babak Jalali presents an assortment of hometown stories from Iraq’s northern border. Read more…
Fri Apr 2: 6:15 (MoMA)
Sun Apr 4: 5:30 (FSLC)
The Happiest Girl in the World
When a plucky young lady from the country wins a contest, she must travel with her parents to Bucharest to claim her prize. Radu Jude’s debut is a bone-dry, pitch-black comedy with distinct views on happiness, the cruelty of families, and the making of inept television commercials. Read more…
Sat Mar 27: 2:00 (MoMA)
Mon Mar 29: 6:15 (FSLC)
How I Ended This Summer
Set in the frozen wilds of the Russian Arctic, here’s a thriller infused with equal parts psychological trauma and physical endurance. Young Pavel (Grigory Dobrygin) arrives at a remote research station for a summer of adventure under the tutelage of the wise and crusty Sergei (Sergei Puskepalis), but things go awry… Read more…Sat Apr 3: 5:00 (MoMA)
Sun Apr 4: 12:00 (FSLC)
Hunting & Sons
In this sharp and trenchant portrait of the pitfalls of happiness, newlyweds and childhood sweethearts Tako and Sandra lead a sweet suburban life. But when Sandra gets pregnant, the good news starts a crack in the adorable façade that grows as Tako gets panicked about the future. Read more…Thu Apr 1: 9:00 (MoMA)
Sat Apr 3: 3:00 (FSLC)
I Am Love
In modern-day Milan, the Recchi textile dynasty inhabits a world of sumptuous elegance, but after power shifts, the company scion’s wife (Tilda Swinton) feels a growing sense of living in a gilded cage—until she is unexpectedly stirred by desire. Read more…Fri Apr 2: 6:15 (FSLC)
Sun Apr 4: 1:00 (MoMA)
Last Train Home
Each year a jaw-dropping migration happens over New Year’s in China, when city workers leave en masse for their hometowns in the countryside. Lixin Fan’s wondrous documentary follows one couple (out of one hundred and thirty million travelers!): the Zhangs, who are making the long and crowded journey to their rural village, trying to reunite with their rebellious teenage daughter. Read more…Thu Apr 1: 6:15 (MoMA)
Sat Apr 3: 12:00 (FSLC)
The Man Next Door (El hombre de al lado)
The star of this dry and wicked black comedy is a building: the Curutchet House in La Plata, south of Buenos Aires—the only residence designed by Le Corbusier in the Americas. In this satire about class, the love of beautiful things, and violent urges, an interior designer and his family are horrified when a gauche neighbor mars their view. Read more…
Wed Mar 31: 6:15 (MoMA)
Thu Apr 1: 9:00 (FSLC)
My Perestroika
Robin Hessman’s thoughtful and beautifully crafted documentary explores the lives of a group of former schoolmates who are finding their ways in a brave new world: two teachers, a businessman, a single mother, and a once-famous rock musician. A touching portrait of ordinary people living through extraordinary times. Read more…Thu Mar 25: 6:15 (MoMA)
Sun Mar 28: 3:30 (FSLC)
Night Catches Us
The realities of African-American life during the final days of the Black Power movement come alive in this Philadelphia drama set in 1976. Anthony Mackie and Kerry Washington play two former Black Panther activists who reunite one summer, before Jimmy Carter’s election. Read more…Sun Mar 28: 6:00 (FSLC)
Mon Mar 29: 9:00 (MoMA)
Northless (Norteado)
The perils of illegal border crossings between Mexico and the United States get a totally fresh take in Rigoberto Perezcano’s delicately poised film. Waiting to make his move, a man from the country bides his time in Tijuana and strikes up relationships with two women at the convenience store where he works. Read more…Fri Mar 26: 6:15 (MoMA)
Sat Mar 27: 3:00 (FSLC)
The Oath
Filmmaker Laura Poitras interweaves the stories of Osama bin Laden’s former bodyguard—now driving a cab in Yemen—and a Guantanamo Bay prisoner charged with war crimes. Poitras shades the complexities of her subjects in the manner of great novelists, delivering an intimate portrait filled with plot reversals, betrayals, and never-before-seen intelligence documents. Read more…Fri Mar 26: 6:15 (FSLC)
Sun Mar 28: 4:00 (MoMA)
La Pivellina
In this engaging unsentimental tale of human decency and solidarity, the little orphan finds home and family with circus folks in a trailer park on the outskirts of Rome. Drawing on their background in documentary, filmmakers Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel naturally depict the easygoing rapport among generations in a small community where everybody depends on one another. Read more…Sat Apr 3: 9:00 (FSLC)
Sun Apr 4: 4:00 (MoMA)
The Red Chapel
Here’s a documentary that has to be seen to be believed, situated somewhere between Michael Moore and Borat. Filmmaker Mads Brügger travels to Pyongyang, North Korea, on a “mission of cultural exchange,” bringing a camera crew—and the Danish-Korean slapstick-comedy team Red Chapel. Read more…Sat Apr 3: 8:00 (MoMA)
Sun Apr 4: 3:00 (FSLC)
Samson and Delilah
Set in the aboriginal communities of Australia, this age-old tale of love explodes cliché and convention through unvarnished and unyielding authenticity. Winner of the Caméra d’Or for best debut feature at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. Read more…Thu Mar 25: 9:15 (MoMA)
Sun Mar 28: 8:30 (FSLC)
Tehroun
Welcome to Tehroun, as Iranians call their capital city—a place where Ibrahim, a recent arrival, begs for money with the help of a child rented from a gang-lord. This debut feature presents a searing portrait of the city’s seamier hidden side, a world of child trafficking, rampant smuggling, and assorted other criminal activities. Read more…Sat Mar 27: 8:00 (FSLC)
Sun Mar 28: 7:00 (MoMA)
3 Backyards
Filmmaker Eric Mendelsohn (Judy Berlin, ND/NF 1999) returns with this exquisite, unsettling trio of life-changing episodes set in a leafy, tranquil corner of Long Island suburbia. Endowed with the mystery of a John Cheever short story, this beautifully composed film creates the vibrant sense of a world full of interior and exterior secrets. With Edie Falco and Elias Koteas. Read more…Fri Mar 26: 9:00 (FSLC)
Sun Mar 28: 1:00 (MoMA)
Women Without Men
In her feature-film debut, renowned gallery artist Shirin Neshat presents the stories of four women in early 1950s Iran with signature visual virtuosity and narrative grace. The ambitions and actions of these women from across the spectrum of Iranian society inform and affect the course of events—public, private, and often political. Read more…Tue Mar 30: 6:15 (MOMA)
Wed Mar 31: 9:15 (FSLC)
Bill Cunningham New YorkWed Mar 24: 9:30 (MoMA)
Thu Mar 25: 9:15 (FSLC)
I Killed My Mother (J’ai tué ma mère)Sun Apr 4: 7:00 (MoMA)
AmerSat Apr 3: 2:00 (MOMA)
Beautiful Darling: The Life and Times of Candy Darling, Andy Warhol SuperstarBilal’s StandSat Mar 27: 5:30 (FSLC)
DogtoothWed Mar 31: 6:15 (FSLC)
Down TerraceTue Mar 30: 9:00 (FSLC)
Evening Dress (La Robe du soir)Wed Mar 31: 9:15 (MoMA)
Every Day Is a Holiday (Chaque jour est une fête)Mon Mar 29: 9:00 (FSLC)
The Father of My ChildrenSat Mar 27: 8:00 (MoMA)
Frontier BluesSun Apr 4: 5:30 (FSLC)
The Happiest Girl in the WorldMon Mar 29: 6:15 (FSLC)
How I Ended This SummerSun Apr 4: 12:00 (FSLC)
Hunting & SonsSat Apr 3: 3:00 (FSLC)
I Am LoveSun Apr 4: 1:00 (MoMA)
Last Train HomeSat Apr 3: 12:00 (FSLC)
The Man Next Door (El hombre de al lado)Thu Apr 1: 9:00 (FSLC)
My PerestroikaSun Mar 28: 3:30 (FSLC)
Night Catches UsMon Mar 29: 9:00 (MoMA)
Northless (Norteado)Sat Mar 27: 3:00 (FSLC)
The OathSun Mar 28: 4:00 (MoMA)
La PivellinaSun Apr 4: 4:00 (MoMA)
The Red ChapelSun Apr 4: 3:00 (FSLC)
Samson and DelilahSun Mar 28: 8:30 (FSLC)
TehrounSun Mar 28: 7:00 (MoMA)
3 BackyardsSun Mar 28: 1:00 (MoMA)
Women Without MenWed Mar 31: 9:15 (FSLC)
